December 8, 2008 12:14 PM PST
Free crapware removal from Support.com
If you get a new PC for a holiday gift this year, it's almost guaranteed it'll come filled to the brim with trialware. Knowing this, Support.com says it's got another present for you: free removal of the unwanted pre-loaded software.
The online tech support service has just begun offering the service for free. It works like this: Go to Support.com, or call them at 1-800-PC-Support. A customer service representative (from North America, they promise!) will remotely access your PC and blast away at the bloatware.
You can watch as they do it, Support.com says.
While crapware is still prevalent, many PC makers have begun allowing consumers to pay more to exclude it on a newly shipped PC.
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica. 
As to what the catch with this service is, there really isn't one. I guess some of our more motivated agents might try to pitch some other stuff to you, but just say no and I'm sure they'll leave you alone. That's about it, really.
On the other hand, maybe they were able to hire a bunch of unemployed, highly skilled IT people for peanuts...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XGJq8wrw5I
At the same time I do understand that the manufacturer does want more money seeing as the economy is at a low point right now, but $50 is a REALLY HIGH price to ask, excuse me, offer just to remove your own crap from a supposedly new computer. It's wrong and shouldn't be happening.
We may hate it but it serves its purpose. If you don't like it, remove it yourself, pay extra to not have it, use a free service like the above mentioned, or build one yourself.
To Akiba - D0ont Macs come preloaded with crap from Apple? Itunes? Quciktime? I whatever?
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I thought we were talking about trial software, not software like winblows media in fista. So to answer the question for Akiba, no Macs don't come preloaded with crap from Apple anymore than winblows boxes come with preloaded crap from M$ (winblows media, internet exploder, whatever).
I've never seen a Mac preloaded with any trial software from 3rd party vendors (not saying it hasn't or won't ever happen, just that I haven't seen it) - and I've never seen a winblows box that wasn't preloaded with trial software from 3rd party vendors (unless I built the box and installed the system myself, of course). I wouldn't base the choice between platforms on this non-scientific observation, but it is what it is.
The world is wide open for Windows software. It is no wonder software vendors try to get attention on Windows screens. There is gold there.
It is such a waste of time getting rid of NetZero and google desktop
Also your system never becomes obsolete as you can ALWAYS upgrade it.
Having said that the biggest hassle of building your own is getting the updated drivers as the ones that come with the components are usually out of date.
I am in the process of bukding an i7 920 system with dual monitors, RAID 10 (HARDWARE) PCIe card and enterprise hard drives.
[CNET editors' note: Prohibited content deleted.]
Anyone with questions about validity of this offer are welcomed to pull my contact info off any of a myriad of press releases and contact me directly.
Thanks.
Also, I have serious reservations about an anonymous stranger mucking around in my computer.
But, thanks for the offer anywhoo!
- by jsjohnson July 6, 2009 12:51 PM PDT
- I have posted instructions for installing vanilla Vista from HP recovery CD's here....personally (and no offense to support.com) I would prefer not to have someone remote accessing my machine.
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